No-Huddle. The TD drives at the end of the 1st half against Seattle and Chicago were both No-Huddle drives. The perpetual 2 minute offense. Sure, it doesn't eat up alot of clock, but it produces points. The Ravens will have to burn timeouts so Ngata won't have a heart attack.

So we all should have figured out by now that the offensive line is the main thing holding the team back. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that anything is going to change with the offensive line anytime soon. The best we can do for the time being is find a way to help the offensive line out so that the offense can once again produce points at a satisfactory rate.

I want to hear from the great minds out there: What are some ways that the Cowboys can help improve the offense?

Here's my idea:

Spread offense. It seems like teams are stacking the line to stop the run and also get to Romo quickly when he drops back to pass. Also, opposing CB's are playing press on our receivers with safety help over top, so unless the receivers can beat the press and get into their route quickly enough, Romo usually doesn't stand a chance unless he performs a Houdini escape act.

The spread offense could force teams to take some of their players off the line which could give Romo a little more time to make reads and find open receivers. It might also create some match-up advantages. I would like to see Bryant, Austin, Ogletree, and Harris in the spread more often. Shotgun is another good formation. Maybe the team can even go 5-wide like the Packers and Saints do at times. Just trying to think of ideas... Any others?

Edit: I could also see that benefiting the running game. We have been successful with the draw play in the past but I don't recall seeing it as much this year.

Frist of all, give the playcalling to Callahan. I don't care anymore about Garretts ability to make calls. He just doesn't have it.

Secondly, model our offense to one that is a pass oriented west coast type of offense. Focus on short throws to Dez and Miles and dump offs to Murray. Murray should be the focal point of the passing game.

Third, move Romo out of the pocket. Use more play action, bootlegs, and more pass oriented plays which allows for Romo to improvise out of the pocket. Green Bay's offense blows a horn when 2.8 secs expires on a pass play. Use that same method of teaching our receivers to get open when the horn blows. When we run we should use the draw quite a bit. I think thats the most effective run play that we have.

4th, take the top 10 best plays we have and create variations. Work on those top 10 plays over and over again until its embedded into everyone's memory. Then throw a little wrinkle here in there on those top 10 plays.

5th, speed up the pace a little. All the top offenses seem to work the best when they are in fast motion. Our offense should be focused on how many offense plays we have rather than how much time we chew up on the clock.

6th, create plays which are suited for our offense. Why are we asking the offense to do things that it can't do?

7th, and last of all, I'd like to see more go for the jugular early. Why do we wait till the 2nd half or the last quarter till our offense starts getting on a roll? Throw deep early and often. Open up the offense. Our mission on offense is to score and to score a lot. Not ball control.

Actually I don't think Tony is a great roll out passer. He is great get getting out of trouble then improvise when plays break down. You can't really draw up a play that way.

Well he was the most dangerous QB out of the pocket just a few years ago I believe. The problem is that our plays have him stay in the pocket and when it breaks down, he is still in the vicinity of the defense. Having roll out on play action or a bootleg allows him away from the defense and away from the pocket. It also gives him more time and to see everything.

This is what Garrett destroyed about Romo. He kinda of made Romo a pocket passer and ignored what he was good at. Romo's favorite plays should be play action and roll out away from the pocket which was our most dangerous play until Garrett became OC.

Well it would help if we actually had a competent offensive line, but we don't so we're gonna have to be more creative. I would like to see us put a tight end in the pass blocking scheme. I wanna see some quick slants. We did that a lot in the Giants game and they couldn't stop us. Run more screen plays. Get our explosive weapons the ball in space. I'm talking about Dez, Miles, and Murray.

Also for the love of God stop running the ball inside so damn much. That clearly doesn't work. Our bigs aren't getting any push. We need to run inside more. Murray is very quick and deceptive. Give that boy the ball and let him show his speed and elusiveness. I wanna see not only some toss plays, but some stretch plays.

We've got to find a way to get the run game going again. We need that to take pressure off Romo because he is having to throw the ball too much. He has no time right now and can't the ball down the field to those explosive weapons like Austin and Bryant. This offensive line isn't very good obviously, but if the play calling can improve and just be more creative we can make up for some of the deficiencies on the offensive line.

I actually blame play calling more than the offensive line. Jason Garrett is stubbornly sticking to offensive plays that are predicated on having a good offensive line. In my view, the Cowboys need to move to a run 'n' gun / westcoast hybrid. I know many of you out there hate the dink and dunk approach, but the plays have to exercise your players strength, otherwise you get the results that we've seen: embarrassing. Garrett's plays have a tendency to take way to long to develop. And let's face it, Romo just simply does not have that kind of time to wait on routes. He needs to take a 3 step drop and get rid of the football.

The run has failed even more than the pass. Why? Because Garrett does not know how to develop a running game. Running straight forward on the strongside over and over as a general rule is not going to build an effective run game. You have to switch up the types of runs and Garrett very rarely does anything different than having Demarco run into the backs of his C/G/OT two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

So we all should have figured out by now that the offensive line is the main thing holding the team back. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that anything is going to change with the offensive line anytime soon. The best we can do for the time being is find a way to help the offensive line out so that the offense can once again produce points at a satisfactory rate.

I want to hear from the great minds out there: What are some ways that the Cowboys can help improve the offense?

Here's my idea:

Spread offense. It seems like teams are stacking the line to stop the run and also get to Romo quickly when he drops back to pass. Also, opposing CB's are playing press on our receivers with safety help over top, so unless the receivers can beat the press and get into their route quickly enough, Romo usually doesn't stand a chance unless he performs a Houdini escape act.

The spread offense could force teams to take some of their players off the line which could give Romo a little more time to make reads and find open receivers. It might also create some match-up advantages. I would like to see Bryant, Austin, Ogletree, and Harris in the spread more often. Shotgun is another good formation. Maybe the team can even go 5-wide like the Packers and Saints do at times. Just trying to think of ideas... Any others?

Edit: I could also see that benefiting the running game. We have been successful with the draw play in the past but I don't recall seeing it as much this year.

Nope. Help the offense by shrinking up the playbook, hunker down, get conservative. Run the ball, short passing game. Spread it out if you want to, but do so in order to run the ball. Do NOT, absolutely do NOT start winging the ball all over the place in a high flying passing attack.

We have a good defense and the offense should basically, NOT screw up the game and turn the ball over. Win the field position game.

give the ball to Murray even more. Get it to him more out of the backfield passing in the flat, one on one over the middle with a LB on him, ect...ect... WR screens to Dez Bryant. Everthing quick and conservative. If you pass, ball is out in 3 steps.

I've said to my friends for awhile now that Tony would make a great west coast quarterback and on the whole this offense would flourish under such a system.

I totally agree. I think Romo would be perfect for a WC offense. I think our receivers would do very well with their RAC ability. Murray is a good fit with his receiving skills as well. I feel like Garrett's offense doesn't necessarily play to these players' strengths.

I actually blame play calling more than the offensive line. Jason Garrett is stubbornly sticking to offensive plays that are predicated on having a good offensive line. In my view, the Cowboys need to move to a run 'n' gun / westcoast hybrid. I know many of you out there hate the dink and dunk approach, but the plays have to exercise your players strength, otherwise you get the results that we've seen: embarrassing. Garrett's plays have a tendency to take way to long to develop. And let's face it, Romo just simply does not have that kind of time to wait on routes. He needs to take a 3 step drop and get rid of the football.

The run has failed even more than the pass. Why? Because Garrett does not know how to develop a running game. Running straight forward on the strongside over and over as a general rule is not going to build an effective run game. You have to switch up the types of runs and Garrett very rarely does anything different than having Demarco run into the backs of his C/G/OT two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

I had to laugh after I read the first sentence. is there any offense that's based on a bad OL? seriously!!! that's your line.

and in your expert opinion, we should change offense in the middle of a season to a run & gun.

and when was the last time the run & gun worked in the NFL?

when was the last time an offense worked without a decent OL?

btw, most teams run to the strong side. its called that because most teams run to the side of a TE. because of the strong blocker. that's why most teams put their pass rushing DE on the weak side. etc. etc. but all of that probably just went right over your head.

the running plays work because the linemen block. I don' tcare how you design running plays, if the OL doesn't block, you go nowhere.

I had to laugh after I read the first sentence. is there any offense that's based on a bad OL? seriously!!! that's your line.

Actually, what I was saying is I think a hybrid of a west coast and the run n gun may help exercise the strength of our offensive line.

and in your expert opinion, we should change offense in the middle of a season to a run & gun.

I didn't say they should do it in the middle of the season. But it wouldn't hurt for them to scrap what's not working and replace it with plays that our designed to get the ball out quickly.

and when was the last time the run & gun worked in the NFL?

I said a hybrid. But by definition, the run & gun (or run & shoot, as it was originally called) focuses on spreading out the defense, motioning receivers to create mismatches, and a fast tempo. That, mixed in with a West Coast offense, by my estimation, would be a great fit for the type of players we have. But I am no expert, far from it. So I certainly could be wrong. I responded because this forum is for people to offer their opinion and for others to make fun of those who do so to make them feel better about themselves. I hope your response to my opinion worked out for ya...

when was the last time an offense worked without a decent OL?

I think our OL is decent...as I said before, I believe Garrett is not using them correctly.

btw, most teams run to the strong side. its called that because most teams run to the side of a TE. because of the strong blocker. that's why most teams put their pass rushing DE on the weak side. etc. etc. but all of that probably just went right over your head.

I know what the strongside is. But running to the strongside everytime is the equivalent of focusing primarily on the pass. You have to run to both sides to keep the defense honest. The occasional cut back wouldn't hurt either...

the running plays work because the linemen block. I don' tcare how you design running plays, if the OL doesn't block, you go nowhere.

Granted. But there are different blocking schemes for different types of offensive lineman. Simply google blocking schemes, I'm not going to take the time to explain it to you.

Well it would help if we actually had a competent offensive line, but we don't so we're gonna have to be more creative. I would like to see us put a tight end in the pass blocking scheme. I wanna see some quick slants. We did that a lot in the Giants game and they couldn't stop us. Run more screen plays. Get our explosive weapons the ball in space. I'm talking about Dez, Miles, and Murray.

Also for the love of God stop running the ball inside so damn much. That clearly doesn't work. Our bigs aren't getting any push. We need to run inside more. Murray is very quick and deceptive. Give that boy the ball and let him show his speed and elusiveness. I wanna see not only some toss plays, but some stretch plays.

We've got to find a way to get the run game going again. We need that to take pressure off Romo because he is having to throw the ball too much. He has no time right now and can't the ball down the field to those explosive weapons like Austin and Bryant. This offensive line isn't very good obviously, but if the play calling can improve and just be more creative we can make up for some of the deficiencies on the offensive line.

Our playcaliing does not match to the skillset of our oline. The plays we've been calling are made for a power running game straight up the middle. As you can tell our oline is easily overpowered. What I think this oline can exceed well is out in space. Pull a guard out on a sweep or draw plays that catch the defense off guard.

Tie this problem with playcalling that is predictable and vanilla and you have an oline that looks weak and lackluster.

Remember, other olines are worst off then ours. Yet those teams find ways to win. Our OC just needs to be a bit more creative. Use quick counts, slants and quick passes, roll out Romo more in play action, and make the playcalling less predictable, like stop running up the gut on 1st down will help cover up some of the issues we have with the oline.

I don't think spread is the answer. You need intelligent receivers to do that. Witten, Austin, and Bryant have both missed hot reads this year. It seems they have a lot of problems separating in short routes, as well. They seemed to do OK against the Giants, but they were really thin at the CB position.